Will do!
I am done merging in your changes that I wanted.
It turns out that some of the changes I wanted to add, Dwallorde has already catered for in War of the Walkers (mostly looting)
But, there was plenty of stuff that I could still add. My favorite is the bedroll recipe. I already had mine changed to require cloth, I don't know why I didn't think of requiring cotton for the stuffing!
In addition, I lowered the chance of the surface ores in the "easy" biomes and increased the chance of it in the "harder" biomes. Like wasteland will now spawn more surface ores and the forests will spawn less. I changed the campfire recipe to also require plant fiber and sticks. I added sticks from the true survival mod. I like the torch as source of fire. It will make the campfire less of a "I'll just craft a campfire and throw it down here" spam object.
I can't wait to start a new game, but I have some more merging to do.

Nice list
I may have overlooked it but I personally think the chances of one or more whole guns in a gun safe is realistic, along with parts, suitable ammunition and repair kits.
Sample loot (just examples, numbers just plucked from nowhere, not balanced)
*hunting rifle
*spare part(s) -hunting rifle barrel, hunting rifle parts or hunting rifle bolt
*ammunition - 50-100 7.62mm rounds
*repair kit(s)

Not sure I understood. With ComSenMod, you can get repair kits in gun safes, where before that wouldn't happen. And if the game pulls from the ammo loot group, the chance of each type of ammo is better balanced. As it happens, gun safes don't use the ammo loot group; they use the guns+ammo group, which is what allows you to find a hunting rifle and hunting rifle ammo, specifically, at the same time.

So in short, it sounds like you'd be as or more happy with ComSenMod as you are with vanilla .

After a bit of thought I've decided to use ComSenMod as the foundation of my own (personal, not going to be released) mod. Just thought I'd tell you as I appreciate the changes you've made to the game.

I am working on a combo pack using War of the Walkers as the base mod.
Is it okay if I use some of the ideas from your mod?
I am adding things like your loot balancing and some recipe ideas.
This is for personal use and maybe sharing with my friends, but I might release it for public use if it works well for us.
Just wanted to know how "comfortable" you are with sharing your brain child.

Sure, AlienZ. ComSenMod is basically my way of sharing all the things I think are good ideas for everyone, or at least the subset of that which I've figured out how to change. So using it as the foundation or a component of your mod is like choosing my brand of ice cream for your sundae, and that makes me happy. I'd just ask to be credited if you share a derivative mod with others, so people know where those original ideas & leg work came from.

I must be okay with these changes being assimilated elsewhere, since the second best outcome for ComSenMod would be for Gazz to look at it, say to himself "...that makes sense," and incorporate all the changes (that don't conflict with new stuff) into Alpha 16.

Searched for nests in the trees until I realized that this is fiction it would be Good to fix baked potatoes and he will prepare the coals without a grate. Add more recipes, such as fried potatoes with meat, fried potatoes with mushrooms, pizza... In the loot drops a little number of items: one nail, three coin, single arrowhead... Garbage bags in the woods all empty. After drinking meat stew is not refundable empty glass jar.

Sure, AlienZ. ComSenMod is basically my way of sharing all the things I think are good ideas for everyone, or at least the subset of that which I've figured out how to change. So using it as the foundation or a component of your mod is like choosing my brand of ice cream for your sundae, and that makes me happy.

lol
Good way of putting it!

Originally Posted by Crater Creator

I'd just ask to be credited if you share a derivative mod with others, so people know where those original ideas & leg work came from.

Most definitely!

Originally Posted by Crater Creator

I must be okay with these changes being assimilated elsewhere, since the second best outcome for ComSenMod would be for Gazz to look at it, say to himself "...that makes sense," and incorporate all the changes (that don't conflict with new stuff) into Alpha 16.

Searched for nests in the trees until I realized that this is fiction it would be Good to fix baked potatoes and he will prepare the coals without a grate. Add more recipes, such as fried potatoes with meat, fried potatoes with mushrooms, pizza... In the loot drops a little number of items: one nail, three coin, single arrowhead... Garbage bags in the woods all empty. After drinking meat stew is not refundable empty glass jar.

I don't understand some of this, but I'll do my best.

For cooking, I followed a simple rule. If you need water, then you use the pot. If you don't need water, then you use the grill. Maybe you're asking to cook a potato without the grill? As far as I know, you need a grill or foil or something so that the potato doesn't burn.

At this time, I don't think ComSenMod will add any new assets to the game. There are other mods that do that. The goal of ComSenMod is to fill things out: to make the most of what's already in the game. So unfortunately pizza isn't feasible. However it would be nice to find some recipe to use animal fat - I see it as an underutilized resource.

In ComSenMod you find more things like nails, coins, and arrowheads in one container. You need a lot of these things to be very useful, so ComSenMod gives you more at once in hopes of reducing clutter.

It doesn't make sense that you lose the glass jar when you cook stew... but it doesn't make sense for the jar to reappear when you eat the stew, either. It's not a jar of stew, it's a bowl of stew. I think the common sense solution for this would be to change the model from a glass jar into a disposable paper cup. Then it would make sense that the container disappears when you cook the stew. However, I'm hesitant to make the jump from xml edits to new artwork, because it'll probably make it harder to use ComSenMod in multiplayer.

This is kind of like requiring a candle to make a campfire - in my mind, the candle is actually a butane lighter. Then when I tried it, I realized candles are only found in one or two houses, so I allowed torches as well. Everyone starts with a torch, but it creates an interesting choice in the early game, and I can speak from experience that losing that first campfire before you've made any tallow creates a major survival setback.

Currently I'm thinking about replacing some or all instances of bottled water with murky water, off a suggestion by Roland. What makes common sense here kind of depends on the nature of the zombie apocalypse - is it a super virulent strain of airborne pathogen that can permeate into nearly anything? If so, then other beverages you find are also probably bad. If not, then a lot of sealed bottles of water still exist that should be fine.

There's also balance to consider. You find less water in ComSenMod because female zombies drop generic loot. Is that a big enough reduction to the amount of clean water you find? I'm doing my best to judge from my own playthroughs, but it's hard to draw a conclusion based on one person.

For cooking, I followed a simple rule. If you need water, then you use the pot. If you don't need water, then you use the grill. Maybe you're asking to cook a potato without the grill? As far as I know, you need a grill or foil or something so that the potato doesn't burn.

Potatoes in the coals. Without a lattice.

At this time, I don't think ComSenMod will add any new assets to the game. There are other mods that do that. The goal of ComSenMod is to fill things out: to make the most of what's already in the game. So unfortunately pizza isn't feasible. However it would be nice to find some recipe to use animal fat - I see it as an underutilized resource.

The game is quite products but very few recipes. Why not roast potatoes with meat or mushrooms in the pan? There are different canned food can be cooked in a pot and get high-quality food.

In ComSenMod you find more things like nails, coins, and arrowheads in one container. You need a lot of these things to be very useful, so ComSenMod gives you more at once in hopes of reducing clutter.

That's the problem. Finds little. For example, three nails. Didn't make the box. Or one arrowhead. And what is it for?

It doesn't make sense that you lose the glass jar when you cook stew... but it doesn't make sense for the jar to reappear when you eat the stew, either. It's not a jar of stew, it's a bowl of stew. I think the common sense solution for this would be to change the model from a glass jar into a disposable paper cup. Then it would make sense that the container disappears when you cook the stew. However, I'm hesitant to make the jump from xml edits to new artwork, because it'll probably make it harder to use ComSenMod in multiplayer.

It eats up a glass jar together with the stew? It is not logical! If I'm not mistaken, this was fixed in alpha 14.

This is kind of like requiring a candle to make a campfire - in my mind, the candle is actually a butane lighter. Then when I tried it, I realized candles are only found in one or two houses, so I allowed torches as well. Everyone starts with a torch, but it creates an interesting choice in the early game, and I can speak from experience that losing that first campfire before you've made any tallow creates a major survival setback.

Why not melt the fat in a tin? The water boils, and therefore the fat can...

Working on a mod

Hey Crater Creator,

I'm using your mod on my server and it's great. I've been making many adjustments, actually so many that I have a list of changes that's as big as yours. I'd like to "release" (I mean post) my mod (based on yours).

It's says in the policy that I need to ask for your permission so that's what I'm doing, can I post a mod that's based on yours?

If not then I'll just start over, and make something my own completely. Either way I'm good. Let me know what you think.

Welcome to the forums, sbwebguy! Great to hear you're enjoying ComSenMod enough to use it on your server.

Thanks for asking about making a derivative mod. You have permission, but I do ask that you credit me in anything you release based on ComSenMod. If your mod is mostly ComSenMod with a few changes, or a compilation of several mods including ComSenMod, or whatever the case may be, that should be clearly documented.

Good luck with your mod. If you're agreeable, I might look at your adjustments some time and incorporate some of them back into a future version of ComSenMod.

Also, a heads up for everyone. The big addition for the next version of ComSenMod will be fixes for weather survival.

Weather survival in vanilla definitely defies common sense. Most of all, I've been tired of nonsense like warming up by taking off my shorts. As I fully anticipated, this rapidly snowballed into redoing the insulation values for all clothes, and then adjusting the biomes and weathersurvival.xml settings for balance.

I'm currently testing my settings in single player (about to fight the first horde in a pine forest). I will *probably* release as soon as I'm happy with the balance & testing, rather than waiting for Alpha 16.

@Crater Creator: Thank you for this, we'll give you credit for ComSen, this mod will be completely based on yours. We are using it on our server and just posting it here later so others can try it. Nothing more. We'll link to your mod as well so people can check it out.